Nice, 2-0-0 again today, although I have to apologize for coming out with such shitty blog picks… honestly I haven’t looked into them much at all the past few days as I’ve been learning web development (javascript/XML/AJAX/CSS/etc.) I swear I'll break .500 today.
Detroit was solid today against Davies. They fell behind in the 1st but took the lead back, and for good, in the 2nd. The game broke open for Detroit in the 5th and 6th innings. Polanco knocked in 2 more in the 5th with his first home run of the season and 2 more runs scored with 2 outs in the 6th.
Jered Weaver had one inning retired with 7 pitches and others with over 15. The Angels left him in for the 8th inning with a 3-1 lead and he used 9 pitches to retire three, ending up at 103 total. The Angels won the game 3-1. It was the first run Weaver had given up to the White Sox in 23 innings. So on to the picks.
1) Rory Sabbatini vs. Mike Weir – Sabbatini cards a lower front 9 score 2) Sidharth Chand vs. Kavya Shivashankar – Shivashankar finishes better 3) Andy Roddick vs. Ivo Minar – 39 games or more 4) Tampa Bay Rays @ Cleveland Indians – Cleveland 5) Washington vs. Georgia – Washington 6) Boston Red Sox @ Minnesota Twins – Minnesota 7) Geoff Ogilvie vs. J.B. Holmes – Ogilvie cards a lower first round score 8) Missouri vs. Arizona State – Arizona State 9) Alabama vs. Michigan – Alabama 10) Detroit @ Baltimore – Baltimore 11) Scripps Nat’l Spelling Bee – No. of Letters in Final Word: 9 or less vs. 10 or more – 9 or less 12) Los Angeles Dodgers @ Chicago Cubs – Los Angeles 13) D. Howard and R. Lewis pts. vs. L. James pts. – Howard and Lewis pts. 14) Arizona vs. Florida – 4 runs or fewer 15) Atlanta Braves @ Arizona Diamondbacks – Arizona 16) Chicago Fire @ Chivas USA – Chicago win or draw
1) Rory Sabbatini has had a good year on the Tour thus far with four top 10 finishes 19 weeks in. Mike Weir has also done alright for himself, becoming a millionaire for the year with 2 top 10 finishes. Sabbatini, a Forth Worth resident, has historically performed better on his home town course with a median front 9 score of -1 since 2004 while Mike Weir has a median front 9 score of even par. Sabbatini has carded front 9 scores under par in 11 of 18(61%) rounds played in that time. Mike Weir has carded the same in 6 of 14(43%) rounds. Sabbatini also won this event in 2007 though he failed to make the cut last year. Weir's top finish was 8th place in 2000 with his second best finish being 15th last year.The course has been altered some from last year and Sabbatini discusses how those changes will affect play. "Under the conditions we’ll play it, I think it’s going to play about four shots harder," said Sabbatini. Four shots harder?"No. Four shots per round, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it play that much tougher." Rain soaked the grounds on Tuesday so there is a question of if the course will be hard and dry in time for the first round, which would increase it's difficulty. Previews of the holes can be found here.
2) It's the semi-finals of the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee and as per their agreement ESPN will be televising this event. This will be 12 year old Kavya Shivashankar's fourth straight appearance in the competition, finishing 10th or better the three years previous. At 13 years old Sidharth Chand is making his second appearance after debuting last year with a runner up finish.
Andy Roddick is 3-0 against Ivo Minar in his career, winning once in 2007 and twice in 2008. He's won in straight sets one time, at the ATP Masters last year, with Minar taking a set in each of the other two matches. In their matches the loser of the set has won an average of 4.6 games, with the past 4 sets they've played going to tie break each time. The French Open is a Major on the ATP Tour so it will be a best 3 out of 5 match with the winner of the match taking 18 to 21 games. In order for 39 games to be played each player must win at least 18 games, at which point 38 games will have been played (with 2 tie breaks) with the eventual winner needing at least 1 more game to take victory. You can check out the scores with the SlamTracker widget up top and to the right, or in a new tab by clicking here.
6) The Minnesota Twins will be counting on Anthony Swarzak to help them take 3 of 4 in their series with Boston today. Swarzak had been tearing up the minors with AAA Rochester so he was on the short list of players to be called up when Glen Perkins went on the disabled list with irritated nerves in his elbow.
His first career start in the Majors was a 7 inning shutout of the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers are a good offensive team and it won't get any easier facing the Red Sox who, despite scoring only 10 runs in their last three games, are batting .284 with a .394 slugging average. Swarzak will also have to contend with Jason Varitek who will be returning to the lineup today. Minnesota will be hoping their own bats will play a factor in this game with Delmar Young breaking his hitless streak yesterday and Denard Span returning to the lineup.Boston will be starting Josh Beckett who has had three straight quality starts after struggling for a couple of weeks. Swarzak's 7 shutout innings look mundane compared to Beckett's last outing, where he limited the New York Mets to 0 runs from 5 hits. Over their careers the Twins' batting order has 66 at bats against Beckett and have recorded a .333 batting average along with a .636 slugging average. If they can duplicate those numbers against Beckett tonight the Twins will win easily.Overall, I think Ellsbury, Varitek, and the rest of the Boston all-stars will make life a little difficult for Swarzak and his streak of shutout innings will come to a close. It will be up to the Twins' offense to keep themselves in the game. I think Beckett and Swarzak will each pitch well and the game should be close and low scoring. Joe Nathan has converted 12 of 12 save opportunities against Boston in his career and I think he'll get a chance to do so again today.
7) Geoff Ogilvy is the odds on favorite to win the Colonial this year while J.B. Holmes is considered someone who will make an appearance on the leaderboard. Holmes has only played in this event once before, in 2007, and he missed the cut with rounds of 72 and 69. Ogilvy has played in this round five times from 2001 through 2008 and has never missed the cut, with a low round of 66 and a high round of 75 both carded in 2001. Last year he carded rounds of 72, 70, 67, and 70.
10) AL East cellar dwellers Baltimore look to extend their season long winning streak to 4 games today against the AL Central leading Detroit Tigers. Both teams are riding hot streaks offensively with Detroit scoring 7.3 runs per game and Baltimore scoring 7.6 in their last three games. Both teams are batting over .300 in those games but Baltimore is batting harder, with a .575 slugging average compared to .455 for the Tigers. That makes for a very interesting ball game.
Armando Galarraga, who has recorded a 5.74 ERA and 1.55 WHIP through 9 starts this season, will be starting for the Tigers. Galarraga has been working in between starts to fix his mechanics which have been inconsistent of late. Hislast five startsDET 3 - 4 COL (L) DET 11 - 7 (W) DET 2 - 6 MIN (L) DET 0 - 6 CWS (L) DET 5 - 6 CLE (L) have seen him give up 25 earned runs in 222/3 innings.Facing off against Galarraga will be another young prospect for the Orioles, David Hernandez. On Hernandez potentially starting Orioles manager Dave Trembley said, "Yeah, the guy who struck out 14 the other night, ... He's starting tomorrow." Indeed, Hernandez recorded 14 strikeouts and zero walks in his last outing with the Norfolk Tide on the 22nd. Obviously that was AAA baseball and this is the Majors, but honestly AAA is full of major league players who are missing one or two elements from their game to make the team.I think Hernandez, like Berken the other day, will prove to be the real McCoy and will put the brakes on Detroit's hot hitting. Galarraga is due to have a good start but I think he's just as likely to continue to struggle until he's placed on the disabled list. He really is a 4.50 ERA pitcher in the majors based on his DICE (defense independent component ERA) from last season so even if he does settle down I think the Orioles will score a few runs off of him. Neither bullpen is that great, with Detroit's being slightly better in terms of strikeouts, home runs, and earned run average, so unless one team has a 4 or 5 run lead going into the 8th it should be anyones game. I give the Orioles the advantage to be the team with that kind of lead.
11) Estimates on the number of words in the English language depend on what is included as a word. For example, to 'run' is a verb, but is a 'run' scored another word? Do run, runs, running, ran all count as separate words? Then there is debate over what constitute an English word. Slate.com has a nice article on this and report that unabridged dictionaries carry between 300,000 to 600,000 words. As for how many contain 10 letters or more the same issues arise, but estimates put the limit at around 60,000 or 10% of all words. The Scripps Spelling Bee website contains a list of winning words from 1925 to 2008. In those 83 years 34 winning words had a length of at least 10 letters, or 41% of the time. It has been three years since such a word decided the contest, but from 2001 to 2005 the winning word was over 10 letters long each year. I favor 9 letters or fewer as there are more words to choose from and plenty of tricky ones.
13) The Orlando Magic visit Quicken Loans Arena to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers, up 3-1 and on the verge of the NBA Finals. They have looked very nice in the first five games, with their only loss being on that LeBron James three pointer with one second remaining++. Much has been made of LeBron James' scoring in the three losses, averaging a monster 44 and some fraction points per game while the Cavaliers keep losing.
Here's a preview of the match from ESPN. Essentially, both teams are at full strength with Chicago boasting the top most goals scored on the road in the league and Chivas USA the fewest goals allowed. At home Chivas USA is 5-1-0 (W-D-L) while Chicago are 3-3-0 on the road. Based on goals scored and allowed I would give Chivas USA about a 41% chance of winning the match outright, meaning Chicago winning or drawing comes in at 59%. With neither team recording a loss through six matches home/away I would consider a draw as a very likely possibility.
Klara Zakopalova took Serena Williams to three sets losing in 29 games, but she was incredibly close to losing in 18. Serena won the first set 6-3 and found herself up 5-3 in the second set when Zakopalova won three straight points to go up 40-love. Serena came roaring back to deuce and they battled over that game point for a long while. Ace, deuce, ace, deuce, and so on. Eventually Zakopalova won three straight points to take the game, and eventually the set 7(7)-6. Serena took the third set, though to send herself to the second round of the Roland Garros.
They did it. The Pittsburgh Penguins swept the Hurricanes with a 4-1 win on the road. Gotta say the Penguins are going to be dangerous in the Stanley Cup. Assuming Detroit advances we'll be in for a true clash of the titans. And so on to the picks.
1) Nadia Petrova vs. Maria Sharapova – Petrova 2) Rafael Nadal vs. Teimuraz Gabashvili – 26 games or more 3) St. Louis Cardinals @ Milwaukee Brewers – Milwaukee 4) Detroit Tigers @ Kansas City Royals – Detroit 5) Manchester United vs. Barçelona – Manchester United 6) Los Angeles Dodgers @ Colorado Rockies – Los Angeles 7) Seattle Mariners @ Oakland Athletics – Oakland 8) Houston Astros @ Cincinnati Reds – Cincinnati 9) Chicago Blackhawks @ Detroit Red Wings – 6 goals or more 10) New York Yankees @ Texas Rangers – Texas 11) Boston Red Sox @ Minnesota Twins – Minnesota 12) Denver Nuggets @ Los Angeles Lakers – Kenyon Martin FG made 13) Jered Weaver’s Pitch Count: 99 or fewer vs. 100 or more – 100 or more 14) Atlanta Braves @ San Francisco Giants – Atlanta
1) You can check out each players' stats, results from this year and their head-to-head results at SonyEricssonWTAtour.com. There's also a nice interview with Sharapova where she admits she played poorly in the first round before turning things around. Their match will be played on the Suzanne Langlen court. I can only favor Petrova as she is currently the #11 ranked woman in the world, while Sharapova has dropped all the way below #100.
4) The Kansas City Royals hope they can avoid starting another losing streak when the Detroit Tigers finish up their three game series at Kauffman Stadium today. The Roayls were once division leaders, but have since dropped 13 of their last 18 and are now sitting at .500 (23-23), 3 games behind Detroit.
The Tigers will be starting 20 year old rookie Rick Porcello who, after tearing through the minors with AAA Lakeland, is having a terrific start to his Major league career. Porcello is coming off a 6 inning 6 hit against the Rockies in which he gave up only 1 run. That's just the latest in a run of solid play by Porcello, a run in which he has pitched 24 inninings over 4 games giving up just 3 earned runs.He'll be facing a Kansas City team that has been batting .240 and slugging just .350 in their last three games. Royals' manager Trey Hillman is betting on the rough stretch coming to an end naturally, saying: "It's been a tough two-week stretch. Every team goes through two or three a season. But I'm hopeful we can pull out of this one, and then the next one that we go through can kind of apply what we learned through this one." Ideally it is just a rough patch and not an indication that their early season success was a extraordinary run of good play. Kansas City will need their offense behind starting pitcher Kyle Davies who was shellshocked in his last start against Detroit, lasting 51/3 innings while giving up 7 earned runs from 8 hits.I don't expect that to repeat itself again today, but the Tigers have punished Davies in the past and so Kansas City will need to provide at least 3 runs of support for him. The big question mark is whether Porcello can keep up his all-star pitching at such a young age. Detroit's bullpen isn't the greatest (4.63 ERA, 1.43 WHIP) and they have been winning games by taking large leads or having their pitchers go deep into the game. If Porcello can go 6 or 7 quality innings the Tigers should take the game, but if he gets touched up it could be very close and Kansas City would have a slight advantage in that situation. Overall I think both pitchers will give up some runs with the Tigers finding some power in their bats that's been lacking lately. That extra power hitting will provide extra runs and should be enough for Detroit to take a lead into the 7th which the bullpen can hold on to.
This is easily the biggest European football match of the year with most of the world looking to see who will be crowned champions of Champions. As such there are an abundance of great previews
win with defense and counter attacks. Barçelona will be dealing with the suspensions of Dani Alves and Rafael Marquez in the backfield, but I think they will still be a strong side. If Manchester United can apply the pressure Chelsea did on the Catalans, however, I think the strength of players like Ronaldo and Rooney will allow them to score.
Jared Weaver will face off against the Chicago White Sox today, a team against whom he has had great success. In two games last season he pitched for 15 scoreless innings, giving up only 4 hits total. He also threw over 100 pitches in both games. This season Weaver is averaging exactly 100 pitches and 62/3 innings over 9 starts and has thrown over 100 in 5 of those starts. Of his 30 starts last season he threw 100 pitches or more 17 times while averaging nearly 102 pitches and 6 innings per start. He is on a 100 pitch count and it's been enforced strictly this season, with Weaver exiting the game after 7 innings and just under 100 pitches 3 times. He averages a very economical 14.8 pitches per inning pitched, which would be 103 or 104 pitches in a 7 inning start. I think Weaver will reach 7 innings in this game, so it will be a matter of if he throws 100 pitches to get there. Unless he's under 85 or 90 pitches after 7 innings it's likely he will be relieved. If he has a bad game and is dominated by the White Sox he is likely to be pulled early, but he will be given a chance to settle down before then. Chicago has been hitting well in their series against the Angels so I like their chances to make hits and force Weaver to see extra batters and hit foul balls forcing him to throw extra pitches.
Wandy got bailed out by his fielders, as he improved his ERA for the season despite giving up 10 hits and something like 5 or 6 runs. An error was assigned after the fact to the first hit, so Taveras reached first by error. His run is unearned, and because the fielder’s choice that scored him would have just put runners on 1st and 2nd with Taveras being out, then the foul out on the next at bat would have ended the inning so all the subsequent RBI singles given up by Wandy were also unearned.
Santana started out much the same way, only difference was all 7 of his runs were earned, and with three outs to his credit he had a 63.00 ERA for the game. Ouch. The White Sox had one of their massive hitting nights and scored 17 runs. Kind of a crazy day in baseball with the Rays giving up a 10 run lead, so on to the picks.
1) Serena Williams vs. Klara Zakopalova – 19 games or more are played 2) Fabrice Santoro vs. Christophe Rochus – Rochus 3) BK Häcken @ DjurgÃ¥rdens IF – BK Häcken win or draw 4) Tampa Bay Rays @ Cleveland Indians – Cleveland 5) Toronto Blue Jays @ Baltimore Orioles – Toronto 6) Houston Astros @ Cincinnati Reds – Houston 7) Pittsburgh Penguins @ Carolina Hurricanes – Pittsburgh 8) New York Yankees @ Texas Rangers – Texas 9) St. Louis Cardinals @ Milwaukee Brewers – Milwaukee 10) Cleveland Cavaliers @ Orlando Magic – Cleveland 11) Atlanta Braves @ San Francisco Giants - Lincecum records 8 strikeouts or fewer
Analysis 1) For those who never watched the opening rounds of Wimbledon on USA as a child tennis matches are made up of sets and games. Each set is won by being the first to 6 games, and winning at least 2 games more than the opponent. If each player wins 6 games there is a tie-break played where the first to reach 6 points and at least by 2 points wins the tie-break. So the minimum number of games in a set is 6 and the maximum number is 13. The match between Williams and Zakopalova is best 2 out of 3, so the minimum number of games a player must win, barring one player retiring (forfeiting) or being disqualified, is 12 and the maximum number is 39 games. For 19 or more games to be played both players must win 7 games, and that's all. I like those odds. You can check out the head-to-head history between these two players here. I noticed that both times these two have played on clay courts they played 19 or more games with Zakopalova winning the match earlier this year. You can follow the match live as well.
BK Häcken visit Stockholms Olympiastadion to take on Djurgården coming off of a brilliant 3-0 home defeat of Helsingborg. It was difficult to get any injury news for Djurgården but here is a match report from their recent loss away at Trelleborg which lists their starting line up. There was no news of injury in the report so that may be the lineup they use for today's match. Unfortunately, the BK Häcken site has limited English translation. Here is an injury report for BKH, and essentially their only major concern is that Josef Karlsson will miss the match. The other players mentioned have returned to training and will be fit, or have not started for the team so far this season. One concern for BK Häcken is the appointment of Daniel Stålhammar as head official. Stålhammar led the crew overseeing their 0-3 loss away at GAIS earlier in the season and the fans are none too happy over the perceived advantage he gave their opponents. He also overruled his assistants on an offisdes call in a match BK Häcken played against AIK. I think Djurgården will be fighting hard to find some measure of success but BK Häcken will prove to be too tough for a team who has scored 5 goals in 10 matches, with the match ending in a draw.
5) The Toronto Blue Jays are on a monumental streak. Of weakness. In their past three games they are batting a barely respectable .255 and slugging just .294, or just 1.15 total bases per hit. To put that in perspective that comes out to one extra base hit every 8 hits.
They have also reached an unenviable mark of going 53 innings without a home run, a span of 6 games which has seen them on the losing end every time. The management appear to be just hoping for a big hit to get things back on track rather than focusing on specific elements of power hitting like mechanics and rotation; and why should they, considering they were one of the leaders in the Majors until this drought. They will be hoping they don't greet newcomer Jason Berken with flowers and champagne. Berken is one of the Orioles' most promising prospects and his move up to replace Adam Eaton was probably one to be made in the near future even without Eaton's being placed on the disabled list. Through 331/3 innings in the minors this season Berken has recorded a 2.16 ERA and 1.05 WHIP while giving up only 2 home runs.Toronto will counter with the return of Ricky Romero who had a 1.71 ERA and 1.10 WHIP in three major league starts before injuring himself, including a 7 inning, 4 hit gem against Oakland on April 19th. He's certainly struggled a bit in his two rehab starts, giving up 10 earned runs in 9 innings with Dunedin (A adv.) and Las Vegas (AAA). Still, he's healthy now and it's not uncommon to see even the best pitchers struggle right out of the gate, or coming back from injury.Overall I would say there are a couple of important factors pointing towards Baltimore winning this game: a pitcher who is playing much better more recently, and better offensive numbers for the past week. Based on each pitchers' numbers from last season, however, I would say Berken would be due to have a poor start even in the minors, and facing a Toronto team that is far overdue to start hitting again I would give the advantage to Toronto. Also, the Blue Jays' bullpen have recorded a lower ERA and WHIP and give up far fewer home runs than the Orioles'. I think each pitcher will struggle a bit tonight and those bullpens will be the deciding factor.
11) One thing to notice immediately from the graphs is that Tim Lincecum averages over 7 strikeouts per game while the Braves have yet to strike out more than 7 times against any starting pitcher they've faced in 44 games, including Johan Santana. The top graph shows how much greater or lower than average a pitcher's K/7 was against the Braves in that particular game. K/7 is exactly like K/9, strikeouts per 9 innings pitched, but for 7 innings. One can see they sometimes allow a pitcher to go far above their average while others can't seem to strikeout a Brave for the life of them. Last season Lincecum pitched against Atlanta twice and had 10 strikeouts and 8 strikeouts, so he definitely can reach 9 against them. He's the Freak of Nature after all. Lincecum's K/7 is 9.3, so if he can be economical with his pitches I like his chances, but in the end I have to go with the Braves who have yet to be struck out even 8 times this season.
1-2-0 today. AS Roma defeated AC Milan 3-2 with 4 of the goals scored in the final third of the match. It was the first match of the season AC Milan had allowed more than 2 goals at San Siro in any competition against any team and increased their goals conceded at home by 33% for the season.Then the Yankees failed to make the finishing play time and again with the Phillies’ fielders making New York pay for their aggressive base running. In the 10th inning Jeter and Damon lead off with singles to put men on first and second, but Teixera ground into a double play and they could not advance Jeter from third to win the game. The Phillies were the opposite, twice scoring from two outs and no men on base. It was a good win for Philadelphia which they deserved.My last pick was the Minnesota Twins, and Baker pitched terrifically, taking 4 hits and 1 earned run through 8 innings. He gave up a two run shot to Fielder but by that time Morneau had already hit a grand slam to add to Mauer and Cuddyer’s solo home runs. Minnesota ended up winning the game 6-3, handing me a 1 game streak.
1) Burnley vs. Sheffield United – Burnley are promoted 2) Kyle Busch vs. Jimmie Johnson – Busch has a better finishing position 3) Tony Stewart vs. Carl Edwards – Stewart has a better finishing position 4) Cornell vs. Syracuse – Syracuse 5) Houston Astros @ Cincinnati Reds – Houston 6) St. Louis Cardinals @ Milwaukee Brewers – Milwaukee 7) Boston Red Sox @ Minnesota Twins – Boston 8) Seattle Mariners @ Oakland Athletics – Oakland 9) Tampa Bay Rays @ Cleveland Indians – Tampa Bay 10) Los Angeles Lakers @ Denver Nuggets – Denver 11) Chicago White Sox @ Los Angeles Angels – Los Angeles
Burnley F.C. and Sheffield United meet today at Wembley Stadium for the English Championship promotion play-off final to determine who will join Wolverhampton Wanderers and Birmingham in the Premier League next season. Sheffield United have seen a great run of form, losing only once in their last 16 matches with that one loss coming against Burnley at Turf Moor. Burnley have really come together behind manager Owen Coyle and have only lost twice in their last 16 matches, away at Cardiff City and home to Sheffield Wednesday.The match pits the lovable Owen Coyle against the experienced Kevin Blackwell, who has guided clubs to Wembley before only to meet with heartbreak. There are a number of great previews
to this match and although the sportsbooks have the odds even up or Sheffield United slightly favored it sounds as if both sides almost expect Burnley to come out victorious. Blackwell especially seems to have the wrong focus, making an issue over the selection of head official Mike Dean, who sent off defender Kilgallon in the 27th minute during their derby match with Sheffield Wednesday in October. Said Blackwell, "I'm very disappointed with the stupidity and insensitivity of the appointment. I'm not saying Mike Dean is not a good referee but at Hillsborough he had a poor game and my marks reflected that." and "It puts pressure on me as a manager and puts pressure on Mike Dean as a referee."Add on top of this the various injury concerns facing the Blades and Burnley appear to be a mortal lock. The match will be very hard fought and both sides have the quality to be promoted. It's not an easy call to make, but football is like any other sport, and in the end I think Burnley's team spirit, chemistry, and the enjoyment they derive playing for Coyle will be enough to see them through.
5) The Cincinnati Reds start a stretch of 13 games against division rivals as they take on the visiting Houston Astros.Cincinnati's Joey Votto and Bruce Phillips are doubts for today's game, with Votto still suffering from an inner ear infection which causes him to become dizzy without warning and Phillips suffering from a broken thumb which he will try to play through once the swelling goes down. Their presence will be missed as the Reds face Houston's Wandy Rodriguez for the third time this season. The Reds lost the first two games
by a combined score of 15-3 with Rodriguez getting the best of Aaron Harang and the Reds both times. Coincidentally it will be Harang on the mound for Cincinnati in this game as well. After those first two games Houston is batting .260 and slugging .403 against Harang in their careers and I expect Harang will do better than those two outings in this game. That speaks well for Cincinnati's chances, but Wandy Rodriguez has been dominant this season, posting a 1.83 ERA and 1.00 WHIP through his first 9 starts. Without Votto and Phillips, and with Houston batting well enough against Harang to increase his ERA by 50% in less than 20% of his innings, I think Houston has a good chance to win this game. With or without Wandy Rodriguez pitching.
8) The Seattle Mariners may opt to keep Yuni Betancourt in the second spot after they defeated the San Francisco Giants 5-4, matching their highest run total since a 9-6 loss to Minnesota back on May 9th. The Mariners have been tinkering with their batting order in an attempt to jump start their offense which ranks 27th in the Majors despite playing as many games (45) as anyone in the league except Toronto (47) and Tampa Bay (46).
Starting pitcher Chris Jakubauskas is focusing on his opponent's starter rather than on the lack of run support his team has been providing this season, saying: "If he's putting up a lot of zeros, you have to match him zero for zero until your offense can explode." He was able to do that in his last start, pitching 6 innings and giving up 0 earned runs and only 2 hits. The Mariners won that game 1-0.Facing off against Jakubauskas this time will be 21 year old Brett Anderson. The Athletics' management has all the confidence in the world that Anderson will one day be a star in the Majors despite the struggles he's experienced so far this season. Those struggles might be excused considering Anderson's first 7 starts have included games against Toronto, the Yankees, Boston, Tampa Bay, and Detroit. They point out he has been pitching with a blister on his finger which has hindered him. In his last outing, pitching without a bandage, he limited the Angels to 2 earned runs from 4 hits in 6 innings. He also struck out 5 batters without walking any. Oakland will have to hope Anderson can do the same against the Mariners, though hopefully in 7 innings, as their bullpen has been struggling lately. They once led the Majors with a 2.58 ERA in the league but that number has increased to 3.78 in the past couple of weeks.The Athletics should have Nomar Garciaparra in the lineup after giving him a day off to rest yesterday and that should help their offense which has been decent recently, batting .278 and slugging .444 in their series against Arizona. Both pitchers have shown glimpses of how good they could be, but at 30 years old I would give Jakubauskas less of a chance to shine than Anderson. With Oakland being in their home park and Seattle's offense due to have another week of games with less than 5 runs I think Oakland has the advantage in this game.
9) The Tampa Bay Rays travel to Cleveland to take on the Tribe with Scott Kazmir recently being placed on the disabled list. Rather than being a blow to the ballclub the Rays are seeing this as an incredible opportunity as they have activated first round draft pick David Price. Excitement is brimming over the highly touted prospect, who has a 3.97 ERA and 1.34 WHIP in 341/3 innings with AAA affiliate Durham.
, who has done very well against Tampa Bay this season and in seasons past. In 64 at bats against Carmona the Rays' lineup is batting .188 with a .266 slugging average, with Gabe Gross the only Ray batting over .300 with more than 1 hit off of him (.600 in 5 at bats). Tampa Bay, perhaps the hottest offense in baseball right now including the Twins, will surely test him. In their series against Florida the Rays had a combined batting average of .312 with a .504 slugging average en route to scoring 29 runs. I think Carmona will help them along in cooling off, which they've already started to on their own. The big question will be how Cleveland will hit off of Price. He may well end up needing only one or two runs of support in this game, and in that case the Rays have to be overwhelming favorites. Overall I can see Carmona having a quality start and with Cleveland likely to hit better than they have been Price could see a shaky inning or two. Unless Price lives up to his billing completely this could be a very close game in which the Indians are just as likely to win as Tampa Bay.
10) In Game 3 the Lakers showed their championship experience and the Nuggets their lack thereof. It was Denver who went ice cold in the fourth quarter after leading for most of the game. They missed their first 8 shots in the fourth and made some crucial mistakes down the stretch, such as the infamous Kenyon Martin inbounds pass. For Denver to win this game they will need to keep their composure and otherwise the same rules apply for each team to come away with victory.
2-3-0… a discouraging day. Alabama did their thing and beat Jacksonville State 9-0 for the third time this year, then the Nationals showed why they’re the worst team in baseball with an utter lack of clutch hitting. Detwiler had a good outing, but lost his concentration in the third inning, walking three straight batters. A ground ball turned into an RBI single when no National player bothered to cover 2nd base and the Orioles posted their only earned run on Detwiler. An RBI triple, Baltimore’s third and last hit of the game, was enough to beat Washington 2-1. Uehara came out of the game after 4 innings as well with stiffness in his hamstring, so the Nationals never got a chance to hit off of him after 80 pitches.Singh losing was alright, I knew it would be a close with one of the two winning by a stroke, it just turned out to be Davis Love III. And I was just a total sucker to take Virginia in lacrosse instead of the Rangers in a sport I kind of know a little bit about. It would've been a truly shitty day if the Giants had ended up losing. After picking MLB teams who had scored a combined 1 run in 25 innings San Francisco finally broke out for 5 in the top of the 8th. So on to the picks.
1) AS Roma @ AC Milan – AC Milan win 2) Rod Pampling vs. Steve Flesch – Pampling cards a lower front 9 score 3) Manchester United @ Hull City – Manchester United win 4) Danica Patrick vs. Marco Andretti – Patrick has a better finishing position 5) Philadelphia Phillies @ New York Yankees – New York 6) Tampa Bay @ Florida Marlins – Florida 7) New York Mets @ Boston Red Sox – New York 8) Byron Nelson Winner: R. Sabbatini or D. Johnson vs. Rest Of Field – Rest of field 9) Kansas City Royals @ St. Louis Cardinals – St. Louis 10) Detroit Red Wings @ Chicago Blackhawks – Chicago 11) Arizona Diamondbacks @ Oakland Athletics – Oakland 12) San Francisco Giants @ Seattle Mariners – San Francisco 13) Milwaukee Brewers @ Minnesota Twins – Minnesota 14) Cleveland Cavaliers @ Orlando Magic – Cleveland
With a victory at San Siro AC Milan AC Milan, could clinch their place in next years Champions League Group Stage and avoid the qualification phase which can be strenuous on a club seeking success in their domestic league. It will be defender and captain Paolo Maldini's final appearance at San Siro after 901 matches over 24 seasons. Emotions will be running high for il Rossoneri and the crowd should be large and raucous providing support for the most celebrated player in AC Milan's recent history.AS Roma will not be intimidated as they seek to secure their place in next year's Europa League. With Palermo and Udinese 2 and 3 points behind them they can only hope those sides meet with defeat as they play away at Atalanta and Sampdoria. A victory for il Giallorossi would leave them needing only to draw at home against Torino in their final match even if Palermo wins their match as well. AS Roma's defense, worst amongst teams not currently in the relegation zone with 57 goals conceded this season, will be depleted for the match with Cicinho, Max Tonetto, Juan and goalkeeper Alexander Doni out with injury. They will also have to do without key midfielder Daniele de Rossi, suspended for the match, who has started 32 matches for them this season. AC Milan will not be without their own injury concerns, but will still be able to field a strong side. Starting keeper Christian Abbiati is out for the season, but his replacement, Dida, has performed admirably in conceding 4 goals in 7 matches.
Here is a preview from goal.com, where they predict a 1-0 win for AC Milan. Personally, I think we'll see a bit more scoring than that. Sportsbooks have AC Milan undervalued a bit with a 48% to 52% chance of winning, depending on where one looks. Although they have had their troubles finishing lately their dominance at San Siro this season is reason enough for me to selct them. With AS Roma having conceded 10 goals in their previous 3 away matches and AC Milan having conceded 9 goals at San Siro in 18 matches it appears as if il Giallorossi have a difficult task ahead.
5) The New York Yankees, winners of 10 of their past 11 games, host the Philadelphia Phillies for the third and final time of the season and look to go 2-1 against the defending champions after an Alex Rodriguez home run and Melky Cabrera double gave Brad Lidge another blown save for the season. It will be C.C. Sabbathia's first game against the Phillies since giving up a go-ahead grand slam to Shane Victorino in the National League playoffs last year. Sabbathia is back in top form after he started the season shakily against Baltimore.
In his last three starts he has pitched 24 innings, given up 3 earned runs from 12 hits, and struck out 20 batters while walking only 5. That's a 1.13 ERA and 0.71 WHIP against Baltimore (2×) and against Toronto at the Rogers Centre. It will be interesting to see whether he can keep Philadelphia from hitting the long ball, as he's given up only 3 home runs through 9 starts, but has allowed the Phillies to slug .466 off of him in 58 at bats.Philadelphia will rely on Cole Hamels to limit the Yankees today, with the 25 year old left hander recording a 4.23 ERA and 1.40 WHIP through 7 starts this season. Hamels also endured a rocky start that lasted a bit longer and it's taken him more time to get back to business but he's starting to resemble the man who was MVP of the World Series last season. His last start, against the Cincinnati Reds, showed he still has a ways to go, however, as he gave up 3 earned runs off of 5 hits, 2 of them home runs. Hamels has already been hit for the distance 8 times this season in only 361/3 innings pitched. The Yankees will certainly be a threat to tack on some runs against Hamels in today's game.New York's bullpen has also been problematic this season, though they can be forgiven for leading the Majors in home runs given up playing half of their games at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees have had the offense to still win those games, as the home run hitting works both ways. Even a solid pitching corps like the Phillies have can give up big shots in the new ballpark. Overall, I think the Yankees' success in this game depends on the performance of C.C. Sabbathia in limiting the Phillies' run production. The Yankees should be able to score against a less than impressive Cole Hamels so he will need some run support in this game. Philadelphia, batting a monstrous .312 and slugging .624 in their last three games, can certainly provide it. While they are unlikely to match those numbers today I expect them to still have a good game at the plate and a great game from Sabbathia would involve keeping Philadelphia from scoring more than 3 runs.
9) St. Louis attempts to sweep cross-border Kansas City in their third meeting in interleague play. The Cardinals have won the first two games by a combined score of 10-0 with terrific play from their pitching staff and fielders limiting Kansas City to 10 hits in the two games. Kansas City will have to hope they can find a light at the end of the tunnel soon as they have an overall batting average of .179 with a slugging average of .232 in their last 3 games, on their way to scoring 3 runs total. It won't get any easier when they face contact pitcher Joel Piniero who is coming off his best game of the season and one of the best games by any pitcher this year.
Piniero pitched a complete game shutout against the Cubs at Busch Stadium, allowing 3 hits total without walking a single batter. His style of throwing strikes low in the zone and letting the fielders do their job was executed to perfection in the game. A second complete game shutout is highly unlikely, but 5 or 6 innings of scoreless pitching could be on the menu.The Kansas City Royals counter with Brian Bannister, who is coming off his worst outing of the season, giving up 5 earned runs from 9 hits to the Cleveland Indians. Bannister throws difficult to hit pitches and the Indians were simply in the zone with choosing the right pitches to swing at so I expect Bannister to have a much better game this time out. Unfortunately for the Royals, St. Louis is finally starting to see a resurgence in hitting after going through their own multi-game slump. In their last 3 games the Cardinals are batting .242 with a .440 slugging average while scoring 13 runs. With Ricky Ankiel and Ryan Ludwick set to return to the lineup soon the Cardinals are hoping to retake their place at the top of the NL Central.Overall, I like Piniero's style of pitching even if he puts a lot of balls in play. It's no fluke he's only given up 2 home runs in 541/3 innings pitched and the Royals will be happy to put any runs on the board against him. Bannister is who he is and the Cardinals will be lucky to hit him as well as the Indians did last week so I think the game will be very close. Bannister is more likely to walk batters, however, and any extra base runners ups the chances of a run being scored. With Pujols and the rest of the Cardinals hitting a bit better I think their chances of scoring one or two more runs than the Royals are good enough to favor their sweeping Kansas City.
11) The Oakland Athletics try to avoid a sweep at the hands of slugger Matt Holliday's old division rivals the Arizona Diamondbacks. Oakland lost the first two games by 1 run each, and in extra innings yesterday even after touching up Arizona ace Dan Haren. Oakland has been hitting well recently, .283 batting and .442 slugging, with the help of Holliday, who is batting .270 with 6 home runs in the month of May. Oakland will start sophomore pitcher Josh Outman (3.31 ERA and 1.26 WHIP in 6 starts) who is coming off of 6 shutout innings against Tampa Bay, giving up only 3 hits. Even though they'll Outman they will want to make sure they provide him with plenty of run support and put the outcome of the game beyond doubt.Jon Garland will be starting for Arizona, who has been very up and down this season on the way to recording a 4.72 ERA and 1.51 WHIP. For example, in his last start he limited the Marlins to 1 run off of 7 hits but in his previous start lasted only 32/3 innings after giving up 7 runs on 10 hits against the Cincinnati Reds. I would expect Oakland to continue hitting well against Garland who is as likely to have a poor game as a good one, so the Diamondbacks will need to give him 3 or more runs of support. They'll hope Stephen Drew's luck has changed and that he really is done with his batting struggles after he went 3 for 4 yesterday, including batting in the go ahead and eventual winning runs in the extra innings. If Garland can have his second consecutive quality start the Diamondbacks will have a shot to win, but I have to favor Oakland who has been hitting more often lately and with Josh Outman pitching, a prospect who is proving day after day that he is a star.
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AS Roma need a victory for their place in the Europa League, but will have to do without de Rossi and a portion of their backfield.
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